2016 marks the 29th Annual Conference on Children’s Literature and 14th
Annual Ashley Bryan Art Series. Broward County Library recognizes the crucial
role libraries, schools, community centers and other youth serving organizations
play in growing young minds, starting at birth. Therefore, the 2016 Conference
on Children’s Literature’s theme is Beginning with Books: Back to
the Basics.

Broward County Library’s Conference on Children’s Literature will be held
Friday, April 29th, in conjunction with the Ashley Bryan Art Series. The
conference is a free, day-long professional development opportunity where
librarians, teachers, writers, illustrators, storytellers, and parents gather to
receive training and gain exposure to current trends in literature for youth and
teens. Participants will meet award-winning authors, an award-winning
illustrator, hear a professional storyteller and participate in learning
workshops.

About the Ashley Bryan Art Series

The Ashley Bryan Art Series celebrates the art of African-American illustrators.
In collaboration with Broward County Schools, the series includes a “Student
Conference” day (closed to the public) dedicated to fostering a love of reading
and learning in young people, featuring a Coretta Scott King Award-winning
illustrator. The Ashley Bryan Art Series also includes a Conference on
Children’s Literature component of which the featured award-winning illustrator
will not only speak at the conference, but will dedicate one of his works of art
to be included in the Ashley Bryan Art Collection: an artwork collection of
illustrators of African descent, which can be viewed at the African American
Research Library and Cultural Center.

Participants must pre-register for this free Conference by April 22, 2016.*Seats are still available for this conference. Please register the morning of the conference at the registration table. Online and phone registration for the Conference on Children's Literature is now closed.

For more information, contact 954-357-7317.

Presenters’ books and CDs will be available for purchase and autographing. Books
& Books will be the book vendor for the Conference.

Conference Speakers

Jack Gantos – Award-winning author

Jack Gantos has written books for people of all ages, from picture books and
middle-grade fiction to novels for young adults and adults. His works include
Hole in My Life, a memoir that won the Michael L. Printz and Robert F. Sibert
Honors, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, a National Book Award Finalist,
Joey Pigza
Loses Control, a Newbery Honor book and popular picture book series, Rotten
Ralph. Several of Gantos’ works and characters are also based on his life, such
as Rotten Ralph, an aggressive cat he had as a pet. A Hole in My Life is an
inspirational book that has helped many teenage boys in trouble. The seeds for
Jack’s writing career were planted in sixth grade, when he read his sister’s
diary and decided he could write better than she could. He begged his mother for
a diary and began to collect anecdotes he overheard at school, mostly from
standing outside the teachers’ lounge and listening to their lunchtime
conversations. Later, he incorporated many of these anecdotes into stories.

Chris Schweizer – Award-winning graphic novelist

Chris Schweizer is the cartoonist behind The Crogan Adventures, a historical
fiction graphic novel series that has been nominated for two Eisner Awards,
and The Creeps, a horror series. When he was a kid, he often read in the
backs of old comics how one could send off to join the fan club or become a
junior detective. So for his Crogan Adventures readers he has created the Crogan
Adventure Society, offering that same type of fraternal order, of which marks
him or her as a special breed of reader, with a membership card to showcase his
or her agent status, giving the inside scoop as to the production process behind
the books. Before becoming a cartoonist, he worked in over twenty varying jobs,
however, he now spends all of his time making comics.

Charles R. Smith Jr – Award-winning author, photographer and poet

Charles R. Smith Jr. has over 30 books to his credit. His awards include a
Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration (2010) for his photographs
accompanying the Langston Hughes poem, My People and a Coretta Scott King Honor
Author Award (2008) for his biography on Muhammad Ali, Twelve Rounds to Glory.
Many of his books have also garnered Reluctant Reader awards, proving that kids
that don’t like to read, do like to read his books. Even though his early books
such as Rimshots, Hoop Kings and Hoop Queens focus on basketball, he has applied
his talents to a variety of subjects, including black history with 28 Days and
Brick by Brick, diversity with I Am America and I Am the World, Greek mythology
with The Mighty 12, and Negro League baseball with Stars in the Shadows to name
a few. His poetry has also been used to paint unique biographical portraits of
personal heroes such as the aforementioned Ali, boxer Jack Johnson and guitarist
Jimi Hendrix.

Donna L. Washington performs all over the country at festivals, schools, and
libraries and gives workshops for parents and educators as well. Her many
storytelling recordings have received Gold and Silver Parents' Choice Awards,
Storytelling World Awards, iParenting Awards, Children's Music Web Awards,
National Parenting Publications Awards Honors, and many more. She is the author
of The Story of Kwanzaa, A Big Spooky House, Li'l Rabbit's Kwanzaa,
A Pride of
African Tales and she received a Parents' Choice Award for her recording
Live
and Learn: The Exploding Frog and Other Stories.

Afternoon Breakout Sessions

Writing in the Library by Jack Gantos
Learn how basic content and structure (and a few writing tips on picture books,
journal writing and short stories) can turn a librarian into a brilliant
creative writing coach.

Playing With the Book! By Donna Washington
Participants will explore exercises that encourage children to learn how to make
books interactive. Learn about creative thinking, problem solving, predictive
behavior and turning language into images and how they develop pre-reading
skills that build lifelong readers.

Hosting a Comics-Making Program by Chris Schweizer
Making comics gives kids and teens a way to focus their enthusiasm for drawing
into a reachable goal and give them the foundation to continue making narratives
and memoirs on their own. Chris Schweizer (The Creeps, The Crogan Adventures)
will help you to craft a program in which the participants will walk away with
copies of their own finished comic to share with friends and family.